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Starvation Lake

Every time I read a Chicago Tribune article by Julia Keller I remind myself to read her more often. I’ve gotten out of the habit of reading the Trib regularly so I usually end up catching up with her articles on the net after I actually read the Trib in paper form (although the new iPhone app may change this). I happened to read the Tribune a few Sundays ago and Keller made mention of Bryan Gruley.

Gruley is a 1979 grad from ND who lives in Chicago and writes about a fictional town in northern lower Michigan (one of my favorite places on earth). So yeah, I bought this book that day.

I’m looking forward to reading about his main character, Gus Carpenter, for a long time. Hopefully Gruley feels like churning out these books for a while. This Gus character is pretty cool. He edits a small town newspaper after a fall from grace at a big Detroit newspaper. And he loves hockey. Hockey is a huge part of this book, which is cool with me.

** PLOT KILLERS FOLLOW **

Gruley didn’t shy away from heavy topics in this debut. After about halfway through you could sense we had a pedophilia/pornography issue on our hands (if I had one complaint, Gruley dragged out the “secret” a little too long).

I like the small town setting, I like the main character, I like the potential romantic interest for the main character, and it was a good crime novel. Book two is out and it’s subtitled “A Starvation Lake Mystery.” That’s what I like, a series. I’m on it.